Category: Foreign Policy

A year later and Russia still dominates the news around US elections. Investigations and political maneuvering over Russian influence in the last presidential continue at full tilt. The partisan wrangling, as tragically is often the case, makes it hard to get to the real heart and findings of the problem. But what we should be doing is just that—trying to find out exactly what happened. That means that we should search for the truth, regardless of where that takes the search and who is involved. If you are one that doesn’t agree then you can stop reading-justice is not the priority to you and you won’t agree with anything else. Continue reading “The Russians Are Still Coming”

The leader of the kingdom of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, brought in the new year by announcing in a new year’s televised address that “The United States should know that the button for nuclear weapons is on my table.”

In 2015, President Obama announced an agreement with Iran on their expanding nuclear program. The President considered it his crowning achievement but there was much controversy over the terms. So much so that the President declared that it wasn’t a ‘treaty’ and therefore didn’t have to go to the Senate for approval as the Constitution says must happen with all treaties.

Internationalists, those who think the best way to world peace is by giving up our national rights and decision-making to international organizations, had another reason to be ashamed last week. And we all had another reason to be leery of international groups that ‘support peace and cooperation’. Continue reading “Sometimes Things That Sound Good Are Dangerous”

Author's note: At the time of publishing, we did not know of the terrorist truck attack in New York. It shows that terrorism is still a threat. Our thoughts and prayers for those impacted by the attack.

Last week saw the final military defeat of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). Iraqi military forces captured the self-proclaimed capital of the caliphate, Raqqa, and drove ISIS fighters into the desert.

At its peak, ISIS had proclaimed a capital in Raqqa, Iraq and had conquered significant territory in Iraq and Syria. Significant to Muslim imagery, ISIS declared itself a modern caliphate and its leader a successor to Muhammed. And early in its ascendancy, ISIS seemed to threaten the very existence of the Iraqi government as Iraqi forces often simply ran in early fighting against fanatical militants.

Twenty-five years of ‘talking’ with North Korea, going back to the Clinton Administration, has done little. More than two decades ago, President Clinton thought that he had come to terms that would limit North Korea’s nuclear development. In 1994, he reached an agreement for North Korea to limit its nuclear program in return for normalized economic and diplomatic relations with the United States. Continue reading “No Easy Answers for North Korea”

Most Americans probably know little about Turkey, yet it is one of the most important members of NATO. It was a key ally throughout the Cold War, bordering the Soviet Union. Turkey was important enough that as a condition for removing missiles from Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union got the US to restrict what planes and weapons it based in Turkey.